Donald Trump a 'national disgrace', says former US secretary of state Colin Powell

Powell's criticism of Trump came to light after his personal emails were leaked by website DCLeaks.com.

Powell also said that Donald Trump is in the "in the process of destroying himself."Reuters

Former US secretary of state Colin Powell criticised the Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, and called him a "national disgrace and an international pariah."

Powell's criticism of Trump came to light on Wednesday after his personal emails were leaked by website DCLeaks.com. The former secretary of state is a retired four-star general who served under three Republican presidents. However, Powell also criticised the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for citing him in her defence of her handling of private emails when she was secretary of state.

Security experts in the United States have associated the cyber attack with the one by Russian intelligence services, which targeted the US presidential elections -- especially the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's campaign. One of the mail leaks of the Democratic National Committee's president caused her to resign from her position after the mails revealed her clear bias towards Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.

Powell's email in June stated him saying: "Trump is a national disgrace and an international pariah." Powell also wrote in the mail that Trump was "in the process of destroying himself, no need for (Democrats) to attack him," CNN reported.

Talking further about Trump, Powell's mails also stated, "He appeals to the worst angels of the GOP nature and poor white folks."

Powell, in his emails, also talked about Trump's racist "birther" movement, which propounds that the US President Barack Obama was not born in the US. Powell wrote in August: "Yup, the whole birther movement was racist. That's what the 99% believe. When Trump couldn't keep that up he said he also wanted to see if the certificate noted that he was a Muslim."

When approached regarding the accuracy of the emails, Powell's aide Peggy Cifrino told CNN that the emails were "accurate".